Easter Hunt
by LovinJackson
Summary: Chocolate brings out the kid in the best of us.


**Easter Hunt**

**Author:** LovinJackson

**Summary:** Chocolate brings out the kid in the best of us.

**Author's Notes 1:** This story is set between 7.18 "Party On Garth" and 7.19 "Grave Of Importance."

This story came into being after seeing an episode of the Australian Soap "Neighbours". Find the inspiration for this story in the Author's Notes at the bottom of this story. I would like to thank Angelustatt for her help in giving me her thoughts as I was nervous having not written our boys in a long time now :) It's a bit like coming home :)

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Just playing. No Copyright Infringement Intended.

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**Easter Hunt**

The pages of the magazine flicked quickly from start to finish, too fast for Sam to really take notice of what was on them. It would be the same as any other magazine on the shelf of this rest-stop. Stories about Brad and Angelina, Tom and Katie, Posh and Beckham really didn't interest him in the slightest. It wasn't important … not with what they knew, with what they lived with. Jess had never really liked those gossip magazines either.

_Whoa_, Sam thought. When had been the last time that he had thought of Jess? It was rare these days. It wasn't because he didn't want to remember what she had been to him, or forget the love he'd had for her and been granted in return. So much had happened since that early morning nightmare. He'd grown. He'd been literally to hell and back and he didn't have time to sit and mope and dwell.

Thinking about her now rocked Sam a little, a rush of sadness zapped through him. He missed her. He wondered if she'd be proud of what he had done, the people he'd saved or would she blame him for what happened? This was why he didn't focus on that night. The sadness and the guilt could eat away at a person. He missed her, he loved her but he put the magazine back on the shelf and pushed thoughts of Jess from his mind.

Sam looked over to the main counter, checking to see if their food was any closer to being ready. Dean had sent him on a food run while he apparently made use of the rest room. They had stopped at a rather large rest stop. They had fuel, food and open air. Sam was grateful for the reprieve from the confines of the car and the lingering storm cloud that continued to be their life.

Walking over to the other side of the shop, Sam's gaze fixated on the egg shaped chocolates on one of the stands, wrapped in bright foil colours. Easter. This, next to Halloween, was one of Dean's favourite times of year. Not for any religious reason but because of the amount of chocolate people consumed. It was an excuse – not that he needed one – to eat more chocolate just like during Halloween his brother felt the need to stuff himself full of candy.

Sam smiled as he remembered Castiel's confusion the first time he had experienced Dean stuffing his face full of chocolate eggs claiming it was 'Easter' and there for his right to do so. Trying to explain how chocolate eggs … or eggs on any level were connected or not connected to the religious holiday had been amusing. The angel was right to be confused. Eggs have nothing to do with Christianity. It was a pagan thing. The Easter Bunny handing out Easter Eggs had just confused the poor angel more because after all, rabbits didn't lay eggs.

Sam's heart fall again at the thought of their friend … Dean's friend.

Castiel was currently sitting in an asylum, suffering from the same insanity that he had been suffering from. Sam's relief at being free from his hallucinations of Lucifer had come at a cost.

Sam knew he should be mad at Cas. The angel had turned on them and broken his shaky wall that had been protecting him from his experience in hell. But he couldn't bring himself to stay mad ... not completely. Whatever the angel had done, Cas was one of the good guys. He cared about them, he cared about human beings and more importantly he cared about Dean. Sam had never seen his brother trust someone who wasn't in their tight, small, tiny little circle of friends and family. Sam didn't want his brother to lose that and Sam could admit that Cas had grown on him too.

He'd seen how torn up his brother was to learn that Cas had been working against them regardless of his intentions, how torn up he'd been when Cas had supposedly died and now? Well now Cas being dead would probably be a better fate than what he was going through right now. If anyone knew what it was like … it was Sam.

Sam knew his brother. He knew Dean would do anything to look after him and keep him safe and he knew that bringing a newly found Cas to him had been to do just that. He had been hoping for a fix, not a swap. Sam knew his brother too well and he was well aware that no matter how relieved Dean was to have him back, it had hurt him to leave his friend at that hospital … and so soon after losing Bobby. Dean would do it again but it didn't make it hurt any less.

Everyone they loved died. That truth had never been so loud as it was right now.

Sam grabbed a handful of the small eggs and four of the larger palm sized eggs. Chocolate Easter Eggs wouldn't change things, and wouldn't bring people back but maybe Dean could get lost in a chocolate haze for a while. It was the least he could do.

"Hey Fellar!"

Sam's head snapped up at shout. The middle aged guy behind the counter was waving a paper bag. "Right!" Sam called back and headed in long, fast strides over to the counter. He placed the Eggs down in front of the man.

"That'll be twenty," The man told him and then accepted the couple of notes Sam handed to him.

"Thanks." Sam told the guy, glancing up and nodding at him.

Collecting his hot food and chocolate eggs, Sam headed out of the convenience/take away store, the bell above the door alerting everyone to his exit.

The air was crisp outside but it was shaping up to be a pretty nice day. There was an energy in the air. And excitement that was almost blowing in the slight wind as it swept across Sam's face.

He let his eyes scan the parking lot for Dean. He found the stolen Ford was sitting where they had left it, parked between a small hatchback and a big SUV. Dean on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. Surely he was finished in the restroom by now. Sam had expected to see the older hunter, leaning against the bonnet, waiting, wanting to know what had taken Sam so long.

Sam's long legs allowed him to reach the car in no time. He opened the passenger side door and deposited their food on the seat, making sure to keep the chocolate away from the hot burgers. The last thing they needed was melted chocolate everywhere.

Closing the door, Sam rested an arm on top of the car and looked around the area. For a rest stop in the middle of nowhere there was quite a lot of people about. The parking lot was at least half full and there were people scattered about, stretching their legs, on their cell phones, some just looking like they were soaking up the sun and the chance for a breather.

Sam found himself wondering - as he often did - where these people had come from, what was going on in their lives. Whether they were going through their own hardships, whether they were driving across country hoping to escape their own demons. Sam knew that it didn't matter whether you could see it, whether no-one else was going through it. Whatever you were dealing with was real to that person. Of course many people couldn't say they had jumped into the fiery pit of hell, come back only to have Lucifer using his mind as his personal playground. Everyone had their own kind of Hell.

Dean's hell ... was letting people down, not being able to save the people he loved. That cut him to the core. His brother had been bruised before his own trip downstairs, he'd come back broken and since then life just kept beating down on him. When did they get to have a break? Hadn't they lost enough, gone through enough, sacrificed enough?

Most people got a chance to fix their problems, send their demons packing and continue onto a better life. These people got the chance to do that because of what they did, because of people like them. Hunters in general could never breath easy in order to make the world safe for everyone else. Problem was, even if they could get out of the life ... it was all they knew how to do. It was in their blood. Sam had tried to escape once. But he had found out the hard way that once you were a hunter, you were always a hunter.

Laughter and delighted screaming interrupted Sam's morbid musings. His line of sight zeroed in on the location of the noise. Off to the side of the parking lot was a play area, complete with swing set, slide, castle and sand pit. Children were running about all over the place while a man holding a megaphone was speaking, giving instructions and spurring the kids on. It was chaos. Complete and utter chaos as kids of all ages sped around the playground.

Leaving the car and their food behind, Sam ambled across the parking lot, his hands in his pockets. He couldn't help but smile. It wasn't often that they heard this kind of innocent fun ... that didn't involve evil clowns and Plucky Penwhistle.

From the looks of things an Easter Egg hunt was keeping the kids occupied as their parents looked on. Children seemed to be tied to each other in two person teams, colourful ribbon connecting their wrists. Sam stood back with all the parents and watched the festivities, allowing himself a moment of light-hearted fun before he marched into the restroom and saved his brother who had obviously fallen down the toilet bowl.

Out from inside the wooden castle a much larger child emerged, in his arms was a small child and a basket. Sam blinked and did a double take. That was no child. That was his brother. His very loud thirty-three year old brother in the middle of a kids Easter Egg hunt.

Sam glanced around him and then back at the playground. Dean took the stairs of the castle - that now looked small in comparison - two at a time and then placed the child on the ground. Dean's wrist also had a colourful ribbon around it connected to the little boy's wrist, his hand holding the much smaller one as they hunted amongst the other kids for the chocolate eggs.

Sam wanted to call out his insane brother but he also didn't want to call attention to himself either. Dean was crazy. That was all there was to it. What Sam wondered was how he managed to find a child to participate in the hunt without being labelled a creep.

Sam fidgeted on the spot, watching his brother as he ran around with a small child attached to him, in a race against a whole heap of other children to find as many Easter Eggs as they could. It was a cut throat game and Dean did not take it easy on anyone. Sam shook his head in amazement as Dean and his small partner in crime beat kids to possible hiding spots. Sam allowed a small smile to touch his lips as he noticed the smile on the older hunter's face ... Dean was having fun. Who was Sam to deny him that?

Sam stood back, and leant against the outside wall of the rest stop, keeping his hands in his pockets as he slouched his long body against the concrete wall.

The hunt was over soon enough and Dean was scooping up his charge and heading over to a woman standing with the other parents. The little boy couldn't have been more than six and was the picture of excitement and happiness. But the kid wasn't the only one. Dean's smile was wide and proud as he lowered the kid to the ground and stood there while the boy's mother untied the ribbon from around their wrists.

Sam pushed off from the wall and slowly started making his way over to the trio, not wanting to intrude. He hung back and waited just out of earshot and watched as a conversation was taking place between Dean, the child and the kid's mother.

Finally Dean ruffled the kids head, crouched down and handed the basket full of Easter eggs to the kid. Sam watched as he said his goodbyes and then started heading right towards him. Sam lifted his chin in greeting as Dean approached empty handed.

"Enjoy yourself?" Sam asked, a smirk forming on his face. He sometimes feared that his brother's inner child had been lost in these last few years but every once in a while - as rare as it was - that child came back out to play. "Remind me again how old you are?"

"I had to occupy myself somehow while you took forever in there," Dean responded, falling into step with Sam. "Besides, it was free chocolate. And boy did we kick ass."

"You were competing against kids, Dean," Sam reminded him.

"Alls fair in love and ... chocolate," Dean replied with a straight face as they reached the car. "You snooze you lose"

Dean automatically went to the drivers side, Sam leant his arms on the roof of the car on the opposite side. "And just what happened to your bounty? You becoming generous with your candy in your old age?"

The older man rolled his eyes and then looked back over to the mother and kid who were starting to load into their own car. "The kid was so damn excited..."

"And let me guess, the mother was hot, right?"

"Smokin'! ... Of course, now I don't get the girl or the chocolate. I didn't think this through."

It was Sam's turn to roll his eyes. He opened the door to the car and moved the bag with the burgers in it to the floor of the car and folded his body into car seat. As Dean settled in beside him, Sam couldn't help but smile. He would let Dean think he believed his superficial crap. Sure Dean had been known to be swayed by a hot chick but he also had a soft spot for kids. Despite the fact he'd just seen Dean fight off small children for chocolate, Sam knew that it was more than likely he gave the chocolate up freely ... because regardless what Dean believed himself. He was a good guy.

Sam tossed him the clear plastic bag the rest stop attendant had put his eggs in. "You're lucky you have an awesome brother."

Dean looked at him in confusion and then opened the bag, looking inside. "You ... Sammy, you're a legend."

"Just remember to share," Sam reminded him.

"I suppose you can have one." Dean teased as he passed the bag back to Sam and slipped the key into the ignition. They pulled out of the parking spot and soon enough they were back on the road again. Dean turned the radio on and seemed to visibly relax in the seat. He was smiling, _still coming off the high from his hunt_, Sam mused.

The car was silent but the good kind of silent that wasn't weighed down by grief and guilt and fear. It wouldn't last long. The reality of their life was simmering underneath the aftermath of Dean's Easter Hunt. But for a few moments Sam was going to make the most of just being two brothers, on the road, enjoying Easter. All that other stuff would be waiting for them.

**The End.**

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**Author's Notes 2:** So Kyle is this adorable Aussie larrikin character on a Australian TV Series called "Neighbours" There was an episode this Easter were Kyle explained to his girlfriend what he and his family did on Easter. They spent the day together and had a massive Easter Egg Hunt, adults and kids, Free for All.

He spoke about it with such fond memory that Jade organised an Easter hunt at the local garden nursery. There was this scene of them pairing up against all these kids in an Easter Egg hunt and it just made me think of Dean. I could see him joining in against the kids because lets be honest he is a big kid himself. Which is one big thing that I love about him LOL

Sooooo … anywhoo … Hope ya'll enjoy :) Hope you all enjoyed the new episode. Dean, Sam, Bobby. They break my heart.

Have a great weekend, people.

**Tara x0x**


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